Big Finish 8th Doctor New Adventure, March 2007
There isn't anything wrong with this audio, per se. I just didn't enjoy it like I thought I should. Perhaps it's because I missed the whole glam rock movement in the 70s as I was a kid and couldn't really appreciate all of the references in this audio. It wasn't bad at all and perhaps it's that relative closeness to my childhood that I wasn't really aware of that makes it harder for me to relate to. Or perhaps it just wasn't for me!
The audio, that is, not glam rock. Though that as well since I prefer more of a pop or dance sound myself. It could just be that Paul Magrs wrote this audio, too. I either really like his stuff or I just feel "eh" about it. I can't say I really hate any of his writing--he wrote The Stones of Venice and The Wishing Beast & The Vanity Box. Both of these were good in spots but I definitely liked The Stones of Venice better overall. But nothing that made me sit up and take notice in anything he's written in the audios. I know he's written a lot of books so perhaps those are more gripping...
So this audio gets high marks for clever dialog and a character in the record producer we really want to see get his just ends/desserts/whatever (good writing of a character, I say!) but the alien menace is just kind of blah. Stylaphone induced baddies? um, okay then. Reptilian bears to be the physical half of the villains coming through the instrument? right. It's clever but it doesn't make me go ooooo, ahhh enough to give it a 4 jelloid rating. This one's definitely debatable on the rating thing!
Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith
writer: Paul Magrs
director: Barnaby Edwards